The US Digital Services (USDS) has awarded a contract to audit, modernize, and update the Digital IT Acquisition Professional Training Program (DITAP). CivicActions will lead the project, with support from TandemGov and Experience Institute (Ei). USDS will serve as the Program Owner.
For DITAP to be “an open-source learning model that makes DITAP scalable, adaptable, and future-proof.”
- Empower procurement professionals through experiential learning and community building.
- Enabling the government to be a better buyer of digital services.
- Deliver improved digital outcomes that keep pace with innovation and emerging technologies.
- Audit the existing DITAP materials and program
- Refresh and modernize the curriculum so that it is skills-based (experiential learning)
- Develop clear and actionable Learning Design Documents (LDD) that align with program objectives and instructional design best practices
- Develop 2 innovative and functional MVP adaptations tailored to different learning needs as well as a playbook demonstrating how the LDD facilitates DITAP course adaptions
- Develop DITAP Digital Workbook that supports self-guided learning
- Create an open & accessible DITAP program
- Establish a DITAP Consortium with an open-governance model to enable continuous improvement of DITAP
To develop the next-generation curriculum for DITAP, we will take a research-based approach to cultivating transformative learning. Building on deep learning theories from Harvard’s Project Zero “Patterns of Thinking Project” and Jack Mezirow’s research on perspective transformation, we will develop a curriculum that combines project-based learning and the active use of the knowledge and skills developed during a learning experience. We will update the curriculum to support an experiential learning curriculum that brings four core workplace mindsets—self-awareness, storytelling, innovation, and management—to the acquisition workforce.
CivicActions will divide its work into two workstreams. The first workstream will focus on instructional design and curriculum development workstream and tackle the three objectives laid out in the SOO. The second workstream will focus on “future-proofing” the DITAP curriculum through a new, open governance model . While working in parallel, these workstreams will be closely coordinated to provide inputs and articulate understandings between them.
Workstream 1 will audit the existing DITAP curriculum, establish a Learning Design Document (LDD), update the DITAP curriculum based on the LDD, and ensure project management throughout the delivery. We will conduct this work across three major phases: (1) a discovery and audit phase; (2) an instructional design phase; and (3) a curriculum development phase. As part of Phase 2, we will develop 2 MVP adaptations and the LDD playbook to enable cross-functional training in the long run. As part of Phase 3, we will author content to be populated into a SCORM-compliant Learning Management System and work with other DITAP providers to ensure community contributions are incorporated into the curriculum.
To ensure consistency across the DITAP ecosystem and proactive updates to the DITAP curriculum going forward, we will work on an open-governance model to help make DITAP “future-proof.”